MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

9/20 Here come the Cardinals

The Cubs play host to the Cardinals in a three-game series, which starts Friday. Dale Sveum expects to hear from a few of his friends on the Brewers about the importance of winning this weekend against the Redbirds. If the season ended today, St. Louis has clinched one of the Wild Card spots. But the Brewers are 2 1/2 games back.

“The Cardinals are coming in and it’s a spoiler factor to come out and play with a lot more enthusiasm than we’ve had the last few days and focus a little more,” Sveum said. “We’ve had a few breakdowns. We have to swing the bats a lot better than we have in some situations.”

Here are the pitching matchups:

Friday: Chris Volstad (3-10, 6.26) vs. Chris Carpenter (0-0, 0.00)

Saturday: Travis Wood (6-12, 4.25) vs. Adam Wainwright (13-13, 3.97)

Sunday: Justin Germano (2-8, 6.17) vs. Kyle Lohse (15-3, 2.71)

* Sunday will be Kerry Wood appreciation day at Wrigley Field. Wood and his family will be present, and they will sing the seventh inning stretch.

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